Michael van Gerwen’s local supporters entertained the punditry team with their vocal reactions early in the evening, before any matches had even started. The darts sensation made an impact at the World Darts Championship (WDC) at the age of 16, impressing the audience at Alexandra Palace, despite ultimately losing to Luke Humphries in the final. The upcoming mini-tournament will feature Michael van Gerwen along with seven other top dart players, including Humphries, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Nathan Aspinall, Rob Cross, and Peter Wright.
This tournament will take place in a different city every Thursday, culminating in the final in May. Emma Paton, along with Wayne Mardle and Mark Webster, received the audience’s appreciation for her analysis and engaging questions directed towards the commentators. The Rotterdam crowd’s reaction to the camera cutting away from Paton was noted by one of the commentators, who tweeted about the fans’ desire for more of her and less of the other pundits.
Paton reacted to this with laughing emojis, but the audience continued to show their enthusiasm for her whenever she appeared on screen. Paton, in an interview with Sports Gazette, expressed her passion for sports, citing her background as a national-level 400m sprinter as the inspiration for her career in journalism. She emphasized her love for engaging with athletes, which led her to pursue journalism during her undergraduate years at Loughborough.
